Any way you slice it, the stats were not good for Washington Nationals phenom Stephen Strasburg in his second start in the Arizona Fall League on Thursday. The top pick in the 2009 MLB draft, Strasburg allowed eight earned runs on three homers, including a grand slam, in 2 2/3 innings.
The quality of Strasburg's stuff was still there, as he hit 99 mph and flashed his plus-plus breaking ball and plus changeup. But his command was shaky from the outset, as he was working far too much in the middle of the strike zone for much of the outing.
Of the three homers, one was a fastball that the batter guessed right and cheated on, one was a good piece of hitting on a poorly located breaker, and the grand slam was just a hung pitch in every sense of the word.